FIRST THOUGHTS: Mangotsfield Friendly

Well my first thought is I should have kept to my golden rule-avoid friendlies!! I would almost describe them as a training exercise gone wrong and the only use of this one (and very worthwhile) is to put money into a local clubs coffers. Anyway I expect what most people want to know is how various players played and whether we have any stars coming through.
In all honesty it is very difficult to judge on any one game and particularly when its against a local league side but overall I would say that Mildenhall looked very shaky and the defence as a whole was pretty well a shambles from start to finish but on saying that I wouldn’t expect any of the back four to feature too much and probably only James Clarke will make the bench. Lyttle,Kilgour and Greenslade were I believe the other players none of whom I would say were up to playing against any higher level opposition – just my humble opinion but to put it in perspective I did once say that Marcus Stewart wouldn’t make a striker as long as he had a hole in his arse!! and I have often been reminded of that so there is hope for all of them!
The midfield four was Montano , Lines (Capt), Lawrence and Moore. Moore and Montano both looked very good or should I say they looked as you would expect them to against Mangos. Lines and Lawrence were ok but as you can imagine there was little ball winning in there and again no signs of Lines getting a shot in at the end of his long probing runs. Up front Gaffney won very little in the air and apart from scoring the first goal there were only a few glimpses of his skills until he limped off before half time to be replaced by Lucas. Alongside Gaffney was James our season long loanee and he did even less than Gaffney looking very lightweight and rarely getting a look in but as I said earlier you can’t judge a player on one game whatever the opposition.
For me there were two highlights in the first half
1) The first time probably since Newcastle at home all those years ago that I have seen a free kick given in the six yard box for a pass back and it was duly dispatched for the opening goal.
2) Our second goal which was superb- a long run from Byron Moore from deep in his own half and then a pin pointed defensive splitting pass that was finished sublimely by Montano.
The second half was littered with changes – Easter tried hard and looks very fit which is a good sign and the only other worth mentioning was Broom who looked outstanding and quickly scored two goals but again it is difficult to judge because Mangotsfield were by then visibly tiring and they couldn’t cope with his pace. The other goal was a towering header by James Clarke. Mangotsfield scored at 2-1 to equalise and at 4-1 and on both occasions made our defence look awful although both were well taken efforts.
From this performance I can really only see the following in the side on day 1 and that of course if we don’t sign anyone else.

Mildenhall
———- ———— ———— ———–
———- Lines ———– Moore
———— Gaffney

Of the ones who appeared last night I would expect Montano, James Clarke, Liam Lawrence, Jermaine Easter pushing for places and Broom pushing for a regular place on the bench.
My own feeling at this stage is that we should be looking to sign four more – definitely a left back as Greenslade for me shows neither positional sense or the ability to mark a player, two strikers (One a target man and a PROVEN goalscorer at League 1 level , a midfield player and in the ideal world it would be 5.
I doubt I shall be attending any other friendlies and if not will see you all at Scunthorpe.